That seems highly suspicious to me. I recently did a 2,000 word essay with 8 references and got marked down for over-referencing, as I was 'too reliant on existing literature and not showing enough independent thought. On the other hand, I did a 1,500 word essay with 3 references, and got a first for it and a small comment saying 'references are a little thin'.
It also depends on the university. When I went to Goldsmiths, the tutors said "For a 2,000 word essay you'll want at least 15 references" - when I went to Warwick, in one of the first seminars I asked the teacher "How many references should we have for an essay this long? at my old uni they said at least 15" and the professor looked horrified, and said "good lord, no! If you have 15 references for a 2,000 word essay, that's far too much, your essay will just look like a patchwork of quotes strung together"