She was educated at Tonbridge Grammar School and Newnham College, Cambridge where she gained a BA in 1960.

Sharp's work encompassed both academic and public service, starting in the civil service, followed by a long spell at the London School of Economics (LSE), a short spell back in public service with the National Economic Development Office in the late 1970s and, since the early 1980s, with the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex.

Sharp's political career began in the early 1980s when she joined the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) and was selected to stand in Guildford in the 1983 general election.

As leader of higher and further education policy group, who produced the paper 'Quality, Diversity and Choice' which is now party policy, Sharp was widely attributed as masterminding the Liberal Democrat's rejection of top-up fees, which contributed to the party's success in taking a number of university seats at the 2005 general election.

[1] She was created a Life peer as Baroness Sharp of Guildford, of Guildford in the County of Surrey on 1 August 1998,[2] and spoke for her party on issues of education, science, and technology in the House of Lords.