Press News

Budapest, July 1, 2003

An objective view of the series - what the numbers indicate… At the end of the second semester - after 39 lectures - we attempt to measure the reception of the University of the Omniscience as reflected by the data available: in addition to the sizes of the on-site audiences, feedback is also obtained from the television ratings and the visitor and page impression figures from the web site of www.mindentudas.hu.

On-site
From the point of view of on-site attendance, the first semester was more successful than the second. The outstanding level of on-site interest continued into the beginning of the second semester, from which time it decreased continually until the lecture held at Easter, at which time, despite the need to register, about one thousand people were present - more than at any other occasion. Thus, in the first semester there was a total audience of 10 thousand, and in the second semester - the longer one - about 14 thousand. This means that in total - taking into consideration return visitors - approximately 20 thousand people wanted to experience the atmosphere of the lecture room in person.

Since January visitors have been able to participate in the knowledge quiz organized together with Magyar Nagylexikon Rt. Those who were able answer the questions regarding the lectures, participated in a weekly draw for the 15 volume encyclopaedia. 3500 visitors took advantage of the opportunity, approximately one-third of whom correctly filled in the questionnaire.

On TV and on the web site
If we compare the television summaries of the University of Omniscience to the general ratings of the educational category, the University produced an outstanding rating. The rating of the programme was especially balanced and higher than average in the group of people over 50 (3.5%) from which came potentially every second viewer. During the two semesters and across all the channels and airing times the highest ratings were received by the Sunday afternoon summaries shown on mtv.

In the second semester the website of the lectures attracted even more visitors than before. Due to the new topics, the continued high quality of the lectures and the more colourful solutions of the redesigned web site, the group of "regular visitors" that formed during the first semester continually expanded with new visitors to the University portal. Since the series restarted in January, there have been about 11-12 thousand visitors a day on www.mindentudas.hu. The number of visitors and page impressions reached 2.5 million and 9.5 million respectively at the beginning of June, and it is almost certain that by the end of the second semester the number of page impressions for www.mindentudas.hu will exceed the dream level of ten million. This means that in theory every Hungarian citizen could have received at least one page of "knowledge" since September 2002.

There was an especially large amount of interest in the five-lecture miniseries on the issues concerning the EU and Hungary as an accession country, which attempted to provide answers from several aspects.

On 14 April the joint lecture given by József Schweitzer - the retired chief rabbi of Hungary, and primate archbishop Péter Erdő received double the average number of viewers for the University of Omniscience on channel m2. Including the two repeat broadcasts, it was viewed by about 150 thousand people. A remarkably high number of users accessed the contents of the double Easter lecture through the www.mindentudas.hu web site.

A subjective view of the series - what the audience says...

Since the beginning of the series the opinions of the audience (and the lecturers) have been collected with a dictaphone, supplemented since November with a video-camera. About 250 quick interviews were prepared in an attempt to understand something of the motives and expectations of on-site visitors.

People expressing their opinions to the message cameras appreciated the high level of knowledge of the lecturers, their sense of humour and the spectacular presentation. Their interests proved to be quite practical in that they were usually excited by the impact that current scientific results may have on their lives at present or in the future. Due to this, they asked, or would like to have asked, even the theoretical scientists about the problems connected with practical applications. The success of Zsolt Bor as a lecturer, according to these criteria, was not only evident on television, but even months after the lecture people visiting the premises singled him out as unmistakeably the best lecturer. This lasted until the lecture given by Károly Vissy. In addition to direct "theatrical" successes, our interviewees also mentioned lectures that were not extremely successful, but which subsequently initiated thought and stimulated further interest. Here, Ernő Marosi and Mária Ormos were mentioned as examples.

In general, it can be said that the scientists' presentations were highly appreciated by the very diverse audience, regardless of whether the presenter was a person experienced in giving scientific lectures or a person who had previously hardly ever encountered a large layperson audience. Those who asked questions after the lectures sometimes displayed very good language skills and evidence of having been carefully prepared. In exchange, the lecturers also tolerated those ideas that were less than clear. There were some faces from the regulars who could also be seen in the second semester’s "Faces from the Fan Club" section of the www.mindentudas.hu website. One of our oldest interviewees, Mr. Jenő Komjáthy, an almost 80 year old pharmaceutical chemist, was proud to tell us that the only reason he missed a few lectures was that he was working.

By now the series as a brand name has become an important reference base when the topic of "high quality and interesting television programmes" arises. The popularity of the concept is well illustrated by its slogan-like mention in talk shows or in the mail column pages of daily and weekly papers. It is safe to say that by now the University of Omniscience has become part of the general culture; it is a conversation piece among private individuals and is also mentioned from time to time in public forums.

In the summer break the Hungarian Television will, at the usual time, replay those lectures of the University of Omniscience that were most successful according to television ratings. The last lecture of the second semester was on Monday June 30th, when László Lovász presented the lecture entitled "What do computers want from mathematics and what do they give to it?"