She studied at the London School of Economics, where she obtained a BA Honours degree in sociology in 1966 and a PhD in social anthropology in 1972.
She carried out the fieldwork for her doctorate in the Madang Province of PNG (at that time the Territory of Papua and New Guinea) in 1968-69 and returned to the area to conduct research on the 1972 national elections, in association with UPNG.
In 2005 she moved to that department as a deputy secretary in charge of social policy, health and indigenous affairs, where she stayed until 2008.
This project put in place the basic elements of the new national registration scheme for health practitioners, which replaced the previous state-based systems and commenced on 1 July 2010.
[3][5][6][7] Following her retirement from the public service, Morauta was appointed as a lay member to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Human Research Ethics Committee, in January 2010.