Margaret Sharp has been a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords since 1998 and between 2000 and 2009 held a front bench position for the party on issues of education, science and technology. She has been particularly involved with higher and further education and in 2010-11 chaired a Commission on ‘Colleges in their Communities’ for NIACE. A Cambridge educated economist, her career spanned both academic and public service culminating with 18 years at the University of Sussex where she retains a visiting fellowship. Her political career began in the 1980s with the formation of the SDP in 1981 and she fought four elections for the SDP/Liberal Democrats and played a substantial role in policy formation for the Liberal Democrats in the 1990s and in the development of education policy for them since then.