@Building, at his college it has to be original to the field.
He didn’t have to redo his whole thesis. It was his outline, based on his research he had done over the summer, that he submitted to his advisor. He hadn’t starting writing in depth yet, except for the thesis question he was asking. He had to alter his research question and look at it from a different angle then his original proposal due to the published article.
He ended up with an A so in the end it was fine.