I think your colleague may be lying. It’s next to impossible to be granted a PHD you didn’t write yourself after years of hard work. It’s really hard to even h

I think your colleague may be lying. It’s next to impossible to be granted a PHD you didn’t write yourself after years of hard work. It’s really hard to even have your work accepted by the review board if the empirical evidence and the methods aren’t solid. A PHD is not a candidate or a bachelor, it’s where your work is reviewed by a board of experts in your field. Often some members of the board won’t necessarily want you to pass either, because it’s very likely they disagree with your thesis. I mean, it’s a cute anecdote but there is virtually no chance it actually happened.