To honour the two women, the company has announced two scholarship funds in their names to fund students to study at Study Group locations around the UK.

“I think it’s very important that we dedicate a lasting memorial to Yana and Donna”

Opening the service, James Pitman, Study Group’s Managing Director, said: “Today is a celebration. It’s a time to treasure the memories.”

Pitman announced that the two scholarships would “enduringly commemorate”  both Bull, A-level programmes manager at Bellerby’s and Baranova, a recruitment manager in the group’s Moscow regional division.

The Yana Baranova Scholarship will fund the A-level studies of one Russian student at any of Bellerby’s campuses in London, Cambridge, Oxford and Brighton, while the Donna Bull Scholarship will be given to a student attending college in Cambridge.

Around 40 colleagues, friends and family members attended the service which was marked by the unveiling of two saplings, planted in the Bellerby’s Queen’s Campus grounds.

“I think it’s very important that we dedicate a lasting memorial to Yana and Donna,” Pitman said, adding that the two trees “will outlive us all”.

Baranova was described as a “motivated and well organised” person who was bright, kind and always the first to offer a helping hand.

Julia Kazanskaya, Recruitment Manager at Study Group’s Moscow office, said that Baranova was a “perfect fit” for the close-knit team, which she likened to a family.

“We really like each other’s company and we’re all on very good terms with each other, and this is why her loss was so tragic for us,” she said.

Friends and colleagues said Donna Bull was  a “vibrant”, caring woman who was a “wonderful” mother to her two children.

“From the very first day of joining the college, her dynamic and effervescent personality was felt by everyone,” Judy Boyce, a close friend and work colleague, said.

“When I asked colleagues what is their abiding memory of her, all of them commented: her warm smile, infectious laugh, her patience, understanding and sympathetic manner.”

The scholarships will be available to students applying this year to begin their studies in September 2015.