Roberts arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours, in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin.
Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin.
Roberts did not only study chemistry as she intended to be a chemist only for a short period of time, already thinking about law and politics.
She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first woman prime minister.
While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college.

During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude.
Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist.
That's probably what interested me.
She was good at general subjects".
Roberts's enthusiasm for politics as a girl made him think of her as "unusual" and her parents as "slightly austere" and "very proper".

Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946.
She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.
Roberts arrived at Oxford in 1943 and graduated in 1947 with Second-Class Honours, in the four-year Chemistry Bachelor of Science degree, specialising in X-ray crystallography under the supervision of Dorothy Hodgkin. Her dissertation was on the structure of the antibiotic gramicidin. Roberts did not only study chemistry as she intended to be a chemist only for a short period of time, already thinking about law and politics. She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first woman prime minister. While prime minister she attempted to preserve Somerville as a women's college.
During her time at Oxford, Roberts was noted for her isolated and serious attitude. Her first boyfriend, Tony Bray (1926–2014), recalled that she was "very thoughtful and a very good conversationalist. That's probably what interested me. She was good at general subjects". Roberts's enthusiasm for politics as a girl made him think of her as "unusual" and her parents as "slightly austere" and "very proper".
Roberts became President of the Oxford University Conservative Association in 1946. She was influenced at university by political works such as Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (1944), which condemned economic intervention by government as a precursor to an authoritarian state.
Margaret Thatcher