AIBU to worry Business Studies GCSE may affect future university choices?

Interestingly, Cambridge specify that they look at GCSEs AND any Level 1 or Level 2 certificates, but they are "limited in their ability" to take "bespoke school qualifications" into account, which I think might be what a couple of previous posters have alluded to.

They do also state "Of the Level 2 qualifications you are taking, we recommend as many as possible be academic in focus." but I imagine this means not too many creative subjects.

^"There are no GCSE (or equivalent) requirements for entry to Cambridge. Our minimum offers are based on A levels and other Level 3 qualifications.
We will look at your GCSE results as an indicator of your academic performance. But this will be within the context of the performance of the school/college where you achieved your GCSEs.^

Any Level 1/Level 2 Certificates you are taking will be considered in the round along with GCSEs. Of the Level 2 qualifications you are taking, we recommend as many as possible be academic in focus.

Bespoke school qualifications
We are aware of an increase in the provision of bespoke qualifications at certain schools, often as an alternative to specific GCSEs.

Whilst we do not have a minimum GCSE requirement at Cambridge, our assessment of an applicant's qualification history and trajectory is based on qualifications that have been benchmarked at an internationally recognised standard. We are therefore limited in our ability to take such bespoke qualifications into account when making our admissions decisions, and we do not treat these qualifications as equivalent to GCSEs. We encourage relevant schools to seek to have any bespoke qualifications benchmarked should they wish for them to play a meaningful role in our processes."

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/before/accepted-qualifications

At GCSE level though? I find that hard to believe (especially as very few schools offer econ GCSE so to favour those that have it would be discriminatory, surely).

@RampantIvy @sixsept we are not allowed to know which unis @Sashya and @jsku are talking about. Hmmmm I wonder why.

@Y9Options please don't worry about business GCSE - yes better an 8 in business than a 4/5 in Spanish, at any uni or sixth form setting, I promise. (Unless planning A level Spanish obvs).

I have to agree somewhat with the PP who suggested a possible low grade in English (which you mentioned) might be more of an issue anyway, especially as economics has a lot of essay writing. So I would focus on that.

A GCSE in Business Studies is not going to affect his Uni applications.

On the subject of MFL, Spanish is one of the easier GCSEs for dyslexics. My daughter passed it quite easily.

I would like to which university said that GCSE Business Studies is not counted. My experience in education has not seen this at all. Studying both Business and Economics at A level can be an issue for some but not all universities whilst it used to be that Business at A level was not on the facilitating subject list (many subjects were the same) but that is no longer the case as this list was scraped out in 2019, and the list only applied to two of the A levels.

We let ours take the GCSEs they wanted

Enjoyment of learning and enjoying their time at school seems much more important than what a parent has decided will or won’t look good on a university application 4 years into the future.

He is the one who will sit these exams.

Layout all the information for him and then let him decide.

The snobbery on this thread is depressing. Given that all the core subject are covered why not do something they will enjoy and potentially get a high grade in?

Surely, an A* in business studies will look better than a 5 in Spanish?

Wow, some schools don't do DT? DD does landscape architecture and I'd say DT was essential preparation. And it's a lot more AI proof than law or an MBA, that's for sure.

Oxford University state:

"We recommend that candidates take those GCSE subjects that they enjoy the most and are confident in achieving good grades in."

https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/admission-requirements/uk-qualifications

No mention anywhere I can see of excluded GCSE subjects.

This is really interesting. My son recently chose his GCSEs and I advised against Business Studies, and persuaded him to choose something more academic. At the University where I work, Maths and Economics are highly valued for our Business degree course.

I’m not sure why any institution would decline Business Studies. I know it’s different but my DH is currently doing an MBA and his salary trajectory afterwards is insane. In comparison, I have a PhD and working in academia there’s a ceiling on what I’ll ever be able to earn. All of this said and done, I don’t have a maths GCSE and still got a PhD from a Russell. Nobody has ever asked me for my GCSE results, they only cared about level 3.

I’m almost certain even Oxford won’t care about GCSE choices. If you flunk level 3 you’re buggered but you have leeway at GCSE level. If he wants to study Economics he needs to study maths and further maths at A Level, that’s all that matters.

Which specific university doesn't accept business studies as a GCSE?

Why won't anyone specify the unis or the GCSEs?!

Edit to add: the "school-directed" GCSEs that weren't included, I mean.

As to the kids I was talking about - they chose GCSEs - now knowing they won’t count. They worked hard for 2 years, etc. And from that POV - it is the system that failed them.

What GCSEs tho @jsku ? Why won’t posters say what GCSEs and what unis?

Yes I saw @JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff’s post and again, I am very interested to know what uni and where it says that on the website. Bc apparently it does, just couched in terms such as “we would prefer” and “most students”.

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff where does it say this on your Unuversity information? I’ve looked at LSE, Imperial and Warwick and I cannot find anywhere that says this.

How sure are you? Infuriating it is, indeed…
Upthread is the poster who actually works in admissions in RG uni…

JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff · Yesterday 20:26
Hi OP, I work at a Russell Group university and our Economics dept has business studies as an excluded subject on their GCSE list like you said.
In some places Economics will be taught in the business school - I worked at a post 92 where that was the case - but in other places it is in Soc Sci.
It doesn't mean people with Bus Stud GCSE are banned, simply that they wouldn't take it into account as a qualification.

But let’s ignore this…

My son did both business and pe A levels finishing in 2025 and had offers to do business at Warwick, Bath, Exeter and others. Never heard of business gcse not being accepted. My son had also done a pe gcse but he did get all 9s and 8s for GCSEs. What I had heard is unis not liking students doing both economics and business a levels.
If your son wants economics at uni best to do maths a level.

@jsku ‘As to the kids I was talking about - they chose GCSEs - now knowing they won’t count. They worked hard for 2 years, etc. And from that POV - it is the system that failed them.’

But they didn’t actually DO proper GCSEs did they? Had they taken Business Studies or PE GCSEs, which you seem to have an unfounded issue with, they’d have been fine & perhaps got the offers they wanted (grades & A levels permitting).

Oh FFS! This is infuriating. There is NO RG uni that would discount GCSE Business Studies. Yes, Oxford and other universities for certain courses add up grades etc. If a uni says you need 8 GCSEs at grade 7 and one of those is Business Studies, it counts.

This is nonsense. Ive never seen GCSE subjects called out other than minimum requirements in Maths and
/or English and triple science preferred for certainsciences. OP, you are honestly confusing GCSEs with A level restrictions in university course entry requirements.

Exactly! The difference seems to be that at @jsku school that fact was not publicised to parents and children. Which is outrageous. Those with half a GCSE in RS are not suddenly shocked when filling out the UCAS form that it doesn’t count as a full GCSE.

I’m wondering if it was the same for @Sashya or if she just thinks that if St Paul’s don’t do xyz GCSE then universities discount it. If her DC did Paulinas instead of certain GCSEs then perhaps she’s made the incorrect assumption that those GCSEs are lesser and not accepted (when Paulinas are). I can understand the jumps made here, albeit incorrectly.

I teach business. It's a great all-rounder course.

Reality of Uni admissions is that it’s not fully transparent. Universities are private institutions and there is an element of black box there.
At the very top, for eg Cambridge is known to not care as much about GCSEs (not in a structured, defined way anyway). While Oxford - does. And they do make a score for candidates - for the most competitive cources - combining various inputs, of which GCSEs are a small part, but it can make a difference, small as it is.

As to the kids I was talking about - they chose GCSEs - now knowing they won’t count. They worked hard for 2 years, etc. And from that POV - it is the system that failed them.

Just like OP’s son may chose Business Studies, not thinking it won’t count for his eventual application, if he does indeed chose to apply for Econ and applies to the Russel group Uni that does not count it.

For sure, Bath Econ for example says exactly that. It doesn't give any more detail that I could find. If it means that the course will not accept this or that GCSE subject, then it should say so IMHO. I reckon it just means they will look at whether a candidate did very badly in any subject, so is their profile spiky, for example.

But actually @Sashya has said that friends of her DC “took GSCEs that were not counted by the degree/uni they applied to [and] … they missed out on a chance at their 1st choice unis”. This apparently was “STEM subjects at top Russell Group unis in the south of England” so London, Bristol or Oxford?

So I am really interested to see a link that shows which uni does not count certain GCSE subjects. As you can perhaps gather, I am dubious.

Tbh "friends of DC" is never convincing – sounds like an easy way to make yourself feel better about telling your friend's mum why you didn't get an Oxford offer – “well the school let me take the wrong subjects at GCSE”. But it's not really fair to spread that sort of tale to a parent who is worried, I strongly suspect without need, about this issue.

I'm still waiting with interest (genuinely) to find out which courses at which universities will not accept which GCSEs

I have read some prospectuses saying that for highly competitive courses, they will consider the “GSCE profile” as well as minimum grades in certain subjects. I’m not sure what that means but maybe this is what PPs are alluding to?

I wasn't claiming I know how Unis take PE GCSE. I was simply replying to @Franpie who said that "she can't think of any private schools that do not offer PE GSCE". And it's just a fact that top ones do not.

The discussion on this thread evolved in a way that is probably not as useful for the OP. If her DS wants to take those GSCEs - he should.

We all have different perspectives and different experiences we draw from. I am in the really competitive part of London - where private kids with lots of predicted A*s try and often fail to get into Economics courses at Oxbridge and LSE.

So - from my vantage point - IF economics is what your child might want to do, it's smart to maximize the chances. And that means - not taking the Business Studies that won't (or at least might not) be counted, small as the impact of that may be.

(I have a Masters in Business, btw - and I don't know how useful a Business degree can be for a 14-15yo anyway - without real life experience and understanding of economics anyway. There is a reason most top Business Schools require a few years of work experience after uni. And it won't be hugely useful for an economics course anyway.)