The number of Course Requests on the Academics Dashboard represents the number of course requests that exist for the upcoming academic year.
Article
Number:100637
Products:
Blackbaud_Student_Information_System
You can check the number by taking a look at the Online Signup Report called Courses - Number of Requests and Enrollments and flipping the School Year filter to the next academic school year. This includes the total number of Course Requests for all students, rather than the number of students with complete Course Requests.