An estimated 3 percent of Chinese students studying in the US - or about 8,000 - were dismissed last year, according to a white paper.

The White Paper on Dismissal Issues of Chinese Students in the United States 2015, recently released by WholeRen Education, a US-based agency providing services to Chinese students, analyzed a sample of 1,657 Chinese students who were dismissed by schools at all levels in the US from 2013 to 2015. It found that more than 57 percent were dismissed because of poor academic performance, the leading cause for dismissal.

A low grade-point average was common among undergraduates and postgraduates who were dismissed. The white paper said that 61 percent of the dismissed undergraduates had a GPA lower than 2.0, and 72 percent of the dismissed postgraduates scored lower than 3.0.