Students from strong uncertainty avoidance countries expect their teachers to be experts who have all the answers. Teachers who use cryptic academic language are respected; some of the gurus from these countries write such difficult prose that one needs commentaries by more ordinary creatures explaining what the guru really meant. "German students are brought up in the belief that anything which is easy enough for them to understand is dubious and probably unscientific." French academic books not infrequently contain phrases of a half a page long. Students in these countries will not, as a rule, confess to intellectual disagreement with their teachers. A Ph. D. candidate who finds him- or herself in conflict with a thesis adviser on an important issue has the choice of changing his or her mind or finding another adviser. Intellectual disagreement in academic matters is felt as personal disloyalty.

Students from weak uncertainty avoidance countries accept a teacher who says: "I don't know." Their respect goes to teachers who use plain language and to books that explain difficult issues in ordinary terms. Intellectual disagreement in academic matters in these cultures can be seen as a stimulating exercise, and we know of thesis advisers whose evaluation of a Ph. D. candidate is positively related to the candidate's amount of well-argued disagreement with the professor's position.