Prof. Valeri Stoyanov, DSc.
Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy
https://doi.org/10.53656/str2021-2-3-pan
Absract. Using the methodological approach of qualitative research to conduct empirical research in the social sciences, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students' experiences of the present and their projections for the future is revealed. The results show that many of them find positives from social isolation in the opportunity to pay more attention to the people important to them and to work more purposefully on their own development. On the other hand, serious fears are revealed, the main of which is for the health and life of their loved ones, as well as for the future, for their career development and realization. They find it difficult to tolerate social isolation and most of them experience their mental state as shaky, as depressed. In general, students have a negative attitude towards distance learning – online, considering it inferior to face-to-face training and assess this training as a risk to their professional development and subsequent realization in the labor market.
Keywords: experience; attitudes; fears; mental state; social isolation; COVID-19