Press News
The University of Omniscience is now in the Public Domain - Facts after two semesters
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?"