University students' experiences with the COVID-19 process: Restrictions, education and family relations

The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore how university students who returned to their hometown due to COVID-19 make sense of their experiences regarding restrictions, distance education process and family life. In addition, the new normalization process experiences of university students returning to the city where they studied were also examined in the study. Participants consisted of eight male and seven female university students who were studying in a different city from their hometown during the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing their distance education at their parents' home. In the interviews conducted within the scope of the research, the Semi-Structured Interview Form and the Personal Information Form prepared by the researcher were used. As a result of the thematic analysis, 22 sub-themes grouped under four themes were extracted from the experiences of the participants. These four themes were named as "Adaptation to restrictions", "Distance education", "Life with family", "New normalization process". As a result of the research, it was found that university students had difficulty in adapting to the family home order during their stay at the family home due to the COVID-19-induced pandemic. However, it was observed that the participants also expressed some advantageous aspects such as getting to know each other better, feeling more financially comfortable, feeling safer and more comfortable, with the increase in the time they spent with their families during the pandemic restrictions. Participants stated that they had difficulties in distance education in this process. University students who returned to the city where they studied again with the new normalization period stated that they had difficulty in establishing and maintaining social relations with their environment.