The post-pandemic transition in higher education has been characterized by a tension between the persistence of traditional face-to-face teaching and growing faculty interest in hybrid models. This study examines how faculty teaching preferences evolved between 2022 and 2025 within Southern and Mediterranean European universities. Using a longitudinal comparative design, the analysis contrasts a large-scale faculty survey conducted in 2022 (N = 266) with a targeted follow-up probe in 2025 (N = 12). The 2022 data show an overwhelming return to face-to-face instruction (79.8%), accompanied by strong rejection of online assessment, reflecting technostress and institutional isomorphic pressures following Emergency Remote Teaching. By 2025, while most faculty report teaching in a “face-to-face with digital support” configuration due to institutional mandates, a majority express a preference for hybrid teaching if constraints were removed. Drawing on technostress theory and institutional isomorphism, the findings reveal a persistent policy gap between faculty aspirations and enforced teaching practices, suggesting that post-pandemic stagnation is driven less by faculty resistance than by institutional restoration dynamics.