Huh? Isn't an advanced degree, in this case, just a set of projects? And isn't the professor in question complaining that some of the projects (i.e., the exam and one of the courses) were not completed?
This is what the argument is about here, that the value of the PhD is being cheapened. If a person was judged by his projects, this would become irrelevant.
When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always have time to investigate in detail the various projects he undertook.
What's at stake here is that the agency tasked with upholding the standard (the U of Manitoba) seems to have slackened the agreed-upon standard for the sets of projects involved to reach the level of "PhD in Mathematics".
> When I go to a doctor's office, I don't really always
> have time to investigate in detail the various
> projects he undertook.