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

[Y9Options]

DS has chosen his options for GCSE and I'm concerned the Business Studies GCSE is not accepted by some universities. When completing UCAS applications for my DD recently, some of her uni choices stated they didn't accept some subjects - things like Business Studies, Media Studies etc.

DS's GCSE choices so far are:

English Language
English Literature
Maths
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
History
Geography
PE
And the last option is yet to be decided.

DS wants to do Business Studies (Edexcel). He'd consider Computer Science (also Edexcel) but doesn't really enjoy it - and everything I've read online suggests it's dull and hard to get a high grade in.

I'd love him to continue with his MFL (Spanish), but he checked out mentally a while ago when he realised he wouldn't have to choose an MFL for GCSE. He has some dyslexia which affects his spelling and doesn't languages even though, he seems to be naturally pretty good at them when he tries. He also has ADHD (medicated) and is far more motivated in the subjects he enjoys.

Uni applications look at the average of your top 8 GCSE grades, so I'm thinking about his chances of getting the best grades he can. He wants to do something like Economics or Architecture at Uni.

You’re making the classic mistake of assuming the fact that they don’t offer it must mean that top unis don’t accept it. That’s wrong. It’s not a subject that it’s client group are demanding that’s all - they tend offer a much wider range of other subjects instead - far more languages than most other schools could offer for example. If Ox and Cam are happy with BS and PE for GCSE, which they are, it’s a bit stupid to say unis don’t take them.

I know Critical Thinking isn’t well regarded at AL, but god I wish it was compulsory for everyone! So little of it these days….

For starters, pretty much all YP take maths, English and sciences so it's a bit much to claim that these are "popular" – we are talking about GCSEs here, not A levels.

So you are talking about history and languages. OK well DS2 took Spanish and history – and PE. I really hate the snobbishness about PE GCSE.

Tbh I don’t really care if Westminster offers PE GCSE or not. It’s not the only school in the world and it doesn’t have some kind of exclusive right over any university. YP with PE GCSE get into RG unis, from schools across the country, state and private.

Exactly.

@jsku are you talking about other level 2 qualifications like BTECs, city & guilds, LIBF Finance certificates, music/LAMDA type things? They have GCSE equivalency.

Oh crikey @Sashya Just because some schools don’t offer certain subjects does not mean Universities don’t accept them. They do. @Y9Options please ignore the nonsense spouted about the subjects you’ve listed not being acceptable. They absolutely are.

No apparently they did half GCSEs etc at their school. The school should have been very transparent about this.

But that’s not true to say most academic schools don’t offer it. Kings Boys, Wimbledon Girls, G&L, Alleyns, Dulwich, to name a few, I could name many more, etc all offer it.

All the private schools do 11 GCSE’s, of course kids will choose some non-academic ones, they’ll have to as there aren’t enough traditionally academic ones to fill their timetable (had this problem with DS who is very academic but not arty, sporty, musically-gifted).

Those “popular” subjects you mention mostly are compulsory ones. They will all still have to choose other subjects such as art, drama, PE, DT, music etc to fill their timetable.

Plus GCSE PE is actually quite academic with something like 2/3 of the syllabus being biology.

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

Or – light breaks – was your DC also at the private school that offered courses that were not GCSEs but that the school implied or claimed were? And it was these fake GCSEs that were rejected by unis?

If that's the case @Y9Options has nothing to worry about. Until someone posts a link I will continue to be deeply sceptical and suggest that business GCSE is fine. As is PE.

Lots of schools do a gcse half course in R/S - that is not unusual

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.)

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

@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).

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.

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…

@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.

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”.

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

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

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

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.