Burbidge studied at University College London (UCL), where she received an undergraduate degree in 1939 and a PhD in 1943. During World War II, she acted as a caretaker at University of London Observatory (ULO); the wartime blackout made it easier for her to use the observatory's telescopes. In August 1944, her observations at ULO were twice interrupted by V-1 flying bomb explosions nearby. She was turned down for a postdoctoral fellowship from Carnegie Observatories in 1945 because the job required observing at Mount Wilson Observatory, which was reserved for men only at that time. Shortly after the war, she taught astronomy at ULO to undergraduate students from across the University of London system, including Arthur C. Clarke who was then an undergraduate at King's College London.