If the similarity report is correct, and unless this person somehow was unlucky enough to publish the entirety of his report beforehand and then resubmit following another draft. AND unless the similarity index isn't diverse, he's in trouble.
Put it this way, the only thing that could save him is, if through no fault of his own sections of his work were published before he submitted again, or if he used long and lengthy quotes, in this case he's okay, but really the universities I've seen use a 20% limit, anything higher and they may not accept, anything above 40% and they may even investigate.
Not much has been said here about this turnitin report and when it was done in comparison to the initial submission and so on.
