Culture shock in the post COVID-19 era: toward a new normal academic life

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound consequences on the behaviour and habits of people in organisations. The objective of this study is to analyse the level of culture shock (CS) that university students have manifested after the period of distance learning (DL) and their physical return to university facilities. The Mumford (1998) questionnaire for the measurement of culture shock (CSQ) was implemented. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 341 questionnaires. The survey sample consists of university students from five different Italian universities. The study offers an innovative application to CSQ questionnaire (1998). Results show that university students suffer from culture shock when they return to university facilities after distance learning. Women with an average age above 30, in large universities, is the category most affected by culture shock. The results can help universities introduce actions to aid students’ psychological and emotional well-being.