Socially and Educationally Distanced: Examining the Views of University Students

Abstract

Although for many students’ stress is a natural part of university life, new stress sources have come into the picture with the pandemic. A “phenomenological” method, one of the qualitative analysis methods, was used in this study, which seeks to reveal the effects of various aspects of the pandemic on the life of university students. The findings show that students want to return to face-to-face education in terms of educational life and, in parallel, find distance education inefficient, have difficulty in adjusting to the new order, have psychological problems, their work habits are negatively affected and they experience performance loss. In addition, they need social interaction since they are deprived of the university environment. On the other hand, limitation of social life, change in social behavior, personal development and devoting more time to themselves are the leading behavioral changes that students observe in themselves.