ZAGREB, 24 March 2022 - Croatia's cultural and creative industries have recorded sharp declines in revenues since pre-pandemic 2019, of 8.5 per cent on average, with some segments, such as music, film and art, having seen their revenues plunge by as much as 40, 35 and 25 per cent respectively, a conference was told in the eastern city of Osijek on Wednesday.

A study on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Croatian cultural and creative industries, which the Ministry of Culture commissioned from the Zagreb Institute of Economics, also shows that some segments, such as video games, have seen increases in revenues since 2019, said Nenad Marčec, director-general of the Croatian Association of Composers.

Last year was still about 12% below the 2019 levels, but given that there were not many concerts and the tourism industry and cinemas operated at a reduced capacity, this is acceptable because a lot of revenues were generated from YouTube, Netflix and some other platforms that now have a large number of subscribers in Croatia. In 2015, there were about 2,000 subscribers to these services, and now there are 200,000, which is "a tectonic shift" that occurred during the pandemic and helped authors weather this crisis, he said.

Asked by the press what he expected from the new Copyright Act, Marčec said that it entered into force in December 2020 and would ensure the implementation of new directives on copyright on the digital market, which regulate the responsibilities of Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram for the use of copyright and make it possible for authors to get their fees. He said that these services had become multimillion companies that paid the authors hardly anything and the new law should benefit the authors.

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ZAGREB, 17 Oct, 2021 - The coronavirus pandemic has affected the mental health of students, but it has also raised awareness of the importance of social contacts and in-person classes, a survey has shown.

The survey was carried out by the Agency for Science and Higher Education (AZVO) from 2 to 12 September, covering nearly 4,300 university students at all levels from across Croatia. Postgraduate students were asked to complete e-questionnaires.

The survey has revealed that direct contacts have no alternative, which is why it is important to return to face-to-face classes while at the same time complying with the epidemiological measures for the duration of the pandemic, AZVO's acting director Jasmina Havranek said.

In the last academic year, the majority of classes (40%) were taught only online, with 49% of senior graduates and 29% of first-year undergraduates attending such classes. 63% of freshmen said that they did not gain a full experience of studying because of the pandemic.

Over 35% of respondents cited classroom learning as the desired form of learning in the current academic year, while 29% said they preferred online classes.

As for vaccination against COVID-19, 60% of those interviewed said they would not support mandatory vaccination for students and faculty, while 25% said they would.

The survey revealed a considerable level of dissatisfaction among students with their lives compared with the pre-pandemic period, with 59% of them saying they were much less satisfied. Part-time students were more satisfied than their full-time colleagues.

The pandemic has also undermined the sense of belonging to the student community as 73% of students said they did not have a chance to meet new people as before. In post-pandemic life, the majority of students (71%) are looking forward to socialising with their colleagues without restrictions, and as many of them are looking forward to not having to wear face masks.

As many as 52% of students perceived their mental health as being worse or much worse than it was before the pandemic. Students were mostly concerned about the possibility of their infecting people close to them with coronavirus (57%), while they were least concerned about themselves getting infected (17%).

During the last academic year, 50% of students experienced social isolation and loneliness, and as many said they had trouble with their attention span and concentration. 46% felt anxious and 29% depressed, 43% used social networks in an unhealthy way, 32% expressed an interest in in-person counselling, while a quarter of them said they felt much better than before the pandemic.

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