THE former head of Scottish Enterprise has been appointed by Glasgow Caledonian University to spearhead a new drive to increase its income by working with industry and the public and voluntary sectors.

Robert Crawford, who stood down as chief executive of Scottish Enterprise in 2003, is to take up the full-time post as executive director of business development and commercialisation later this year.

He will also head up moves by the university to improve the social regeneration of the city.

The appointment of Crawford, 55, comes three years after he resigned from Scottish Enterprise, claiming the organisation had been turned into a "political football" and complaining of the pressure on his personal life of the high-profile post.

Since then, he worked for a short time for the Aberdeenbased oil services firm Wood Group before heading up the economic regeneration of Kosovo on behalf of the European Union. His most recent post was as chief executive of the Mersey Partnership, based in Liverpool, a private public partnership agency that aims to attract inward investment to North-west England.

The appointment to Glasgow Caledonian comes at a difficult time for universities in Scotland with increasing uncertainty over their financial future.

The introduction of top-up tuition fees in England has left universities north of the border concerned that they will be unable to attract the best research staff unless the Scottish Executive increases funding.

During the recent UK-wide dispute over pay, it emerged that some universities were considering a recruitment freeze with Glasgow Caledonian one of the worst hit, stating that it intends to implement a programme of voluntary redundancies to stave off a projected budget deficit of several million pounds.

Yesterday, Professor Pamela Gillies, the university's principal, welcomed the appointment. "This is an exciting opportunity for Glasgow Caledonian to strengthen and develop its income through partnership with business and the community at a crucial time for universities, " she said.

"We created this appointment to reflect the university's ambition to be a key player in economic growth as well as economic and social regeneration regionally, nationally and internationally. Universities have a significant contribution to make in driving this and the post will take this forward."

Crawford said: "I am extremely pleased to be returning to Glasgow to take up this prestigious role at such a forward thinking institution.

"I am very encouraged by the principal's vision for the university and I am very enthusiastic about having the chance to lead Glasgow Caledonian's strategy in this area."

The appointment of Crawford will attract significant interest across the sector, particularly because of his outspoken views on the future of higher education.

He believes Scottish universities need to merge and integrate if they are to be able to compete with global brands such as Harvard.

Crawford has described the issue as one of the most important facing the Scottish economy, stating at his farewell speech from Scottish Enterprise: "The next big challenge is going to be the engagement of universities in the Scottish economy.

"That is where wealth comes from, if you look across the globe, the great urban regenerations in the US and if you look at Singapore, which is now building the next stage in their economy around skills and knowledge, that's the key for a truly competitive economy and that's where the big challenge lies."

He said there were university principals signed up for the enterprise agenda, but that the sector had a lot of catching up to do if it was to compete internationally.

"I think of universities in the same context as the Scottish Premierleague. There are probably too many clubs, they're under-resourced, not getting synergies, not getting overhead utilisation properly, so they need to merge. Like any business, you need to differentiate on your strengths, so you can't afford to attempt to cover the spectrum."