Increasing the competitiveness of Russian higher education in the world market of educational services is an important strategic goal of its development. The article analyzes the Project “5 in 100” as one of the tools for reforming Russian higher education. Analyze is conducted in the context of the system risks on management on the state policy implementation in the education and science field, and their impact on the sustainable development of Russian higher education. The article provides a description of the position of Russian universities in the authoritative world rankings on 2012 - at the time of the Project start; description of the values of such important parameters of the Project as “Project participants” and “Project financing” at the time of the Project start and for the entire period of its implementation; characterization of the position of Russian universities in authoritative world rankings by 2020 - the moment of the end of the Project. The obtained results include the following. The assessment of the adoption and development feasibility of the of the Project “5 in 100” was carried out on the basis of its content analysis, as well as the results of implementation and showed the following. The project did not have a proper justification, and its implementation led to the real implementation of a number of the system risks on management - to the emergence of significant negative consequences both for a significant number of state universities in Russia and for the sustainable development of the entire higher education in Russia.