Fifteen officials and 31 students have been punished following revelations of cheating in the national college entrance examination.

Authorities in Chongqing municipality revealed the 15 officials would be punished for falsifying the ethnicity of the 31 students, who will be refused entry to any university this year, Xinhua reported.

The officials, including the deputy magistrate of Shizhu county Tang Ping, public security officials and ethnicity officials, were formally warned by the Communist Party of China (CPC) or removed from their administrative posts, according to a statement from the CPC's Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.