It's a bit reminiscent of college dropout Steven Spielberg's returning to Cal State Long Beach in 2002 to finish his B.A. in Film and Electronic Arts: One of the degree requirements was to complete and submit a film project — so he submitted <i>Schindler's List</i>, which had won the Academy Award for Best Picture (and Spielberg the Oscar for Best Director).
This culture of degrees as attainments is not good. It's supposed to be training for a productive research career but when some unlikely person collects the degree it's treated like a medal. The professor's time was wasted.