Zhanely Tirzhanova, a 17-year-old student from Kokshetau, has passed all her school exams ahead of schedule after receiving full scholarships from prestigious universities in Spain and Hong Kong, reports the national portal “Adyrna” with reference to Kazinform.
A graduate of the Al-Farabi IT Lyceum in Kokshetau, Zhanely received offers from four international universities.
“I received my diploma with top marks in all subjects ahead of schedule. To apply for foreign universities, I needed my diploma early to have time to translate documents and apply. That’s why I requested it in advance. I took the state exams at the end of the third term and received my diploma on April 1. I was examined in Mathematics, Kazakh and Russian languages, and Kazakh History. For my elective, I chose English. Since 9th grade, I’ve been researching how to get into universities abroad on my own,” said Zhanely.
Her first offer came from ESADE Business School (Barcelona), where she won a full scholarship for a dual degree program in Business Administration and Artificial Intelligence in Business. ESADE is one of the world’s top business schools, ranked 17th globally and 6th in Europe in the Financial Times Global MBA ranking.
The second is IE University (Madrid), where she also received a full scholarship in Business Administration and Data & Business Analytics. IE University is among the top 10 business universities in Europe.
The third offer came from City University of Hong Kong, which gave her a conditional offer and a scholarship for a FinTech program. According to the QS World University Rankings 2025, this university ranks 62nd globally and 10th in Asia.
The fourth is Hong Kong University, where she plans to study Business and the Application of AI in Business. Since 10th grade, Zhanely has been developing a project titled “Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics,” exploring the connection between the two fields.
Zhanely has currently chosen to study in Barcelona.
“For now, I’ve chosen Barcelona. I will leave at the end of August. The program I chose – Business and AI in Business – is also developing in Kazakhstan. For example, financial technologies at Kaspi are well-developed and fully digitalized compared to other countries. But whether I return to Kazakhstan after graduation is something I can’t say for sure yet. I’ll think about it closer to the final years of university. In any case, Kazakhstan is my homeland. It gave me the opportunity to pursue the education of my dreams,” Zhanely concluded.
