In this scenario, a small university in Europe wants to determine the attitude of its students towards various aspects of the university. The university was founded in 1928 and is a fully accredited government-financed university with 11,000 students. To identify the sampling techniques that should be used for this study, the purpose of the study and the research questions should be taken into consideration.

Qualitative research studies require a smaller sample size because their goal is to provide rich contextual information about the research topic. Research questions that accompany a qualitative study may begin with "how" or "why". Convenience sampling and purposive sampling are often used for qualitative research These are both non-probabilistic sampling methods. Convenience samples typically take the first eligible participants that come forward. Purposive samples seek a specific set of participants that meet a specific set of criteria.

Quantitative research studies require a larger sample size to be statistically valid. The goal of quantitative research is to measure the strength of the relationship between two or more variables. Quantitative research questions typically begin with "what". The quantitative sample must contain at least 200 randomly selected participants for the findings to be generalizable. Generalizability refers to the scientific ability to assign research findings to the entire study population.

For this study, the most appropriate research question is "What are student attitudes towards aspects of the university?" The variables being studied are the aspects of the university and student attitudes. The study population is all 11,000 students that are enrolled in the university. The data would be collected through surveys distributed to 250 students. The additional 50 students provide a buffer in case some students drop out of the study. The 250 students will be selected randomly based on student ID. Excel will be used to generate 250 random student ID numbers for participation.