Let Futures Research and Education Take Root in the Industrial Soil — A Brief Account of Activities by Dalian Commodity Exchange University Teachers Visiting Real Enterprises in Hunan

How can futures knowledge taught in class be applied across different industries? What abilities and qualities do fresh graduates need to win a company’s favor? How can futures-focused teaching and research be made more targeted and more valuable in serving the real economy?

With these questions in mind, several university faculty members recently took part in Dalian Commodity Exchange’s (“DCE”) “Hundred Schools and Ten Thousand Talents” industry visit program. They stepped out of the campus and into factory zones, exchanged directly with enterprise experts, and, from an industry perspective, re-examined futures teaching and research.

Feel the pulse of industry: from classroom theory to settlement-and-delivery (期现) integration in the front line

Deepening industry-education integration and promoting an organic alignment between the education chain, talent chain, industrial chain, and innovation chain is an inevitable requirement to resolve structural contradictions between the education supply side and the industrial demand side. Futures connect both the financial markets and the real economy, and the development of related majors cannot be separated from the nurturing of industrial soil. Since launching the “Hundred Schools and Ten Thousand Talents” project in 2017, DCE has continuously deepened cooperation with universities nationwide to jointly advance talent cultivation in the futures and derivatives field, cumulatively covering more than one hundred universities. And this year, against the backdrop of further integration and development between the spot and futures markets, industry visits have become DCE’s new “gift” for university teachers of futures majors.

When they learned they could visit and exchange on-site with well-known enterprises such as Hunan Steel, Tangren Shen, New Hope Hopeful (XinwuFeng), Daodaoquan Grain & Oil, and Xingchang Petrochemical, more than 20 teachers from 19 universities including Fudan University and Nanjing University submitted their registration information without hesitation. “We can’t miss this opportunity” was what everyone was thinking before setting off. As the event progressed, they gained a deeper understanding of how to apply knowledge concepts learned in the classroom in practice, and “full of rewards” became a shared sentiment.

During the visits, the teachers first realized that companies in different industries actually have distinctive and clearly different features in terms of hedged commodities and operating models.

Hunan Steel, as the only Fortune 500 company in Hunan, began trying hedging very early—right at the initial listing of rebar futures and iron ore futures—and has become quite proficient in settlement-and-delivery (期现) operations. Its steel production segment locks in costs and profits, or builds virtual inventory, by buying iron ore and coking coal futures, while its trading segment uses more diverse and flexible strategies. Daodaoquan Grain & Oil, after nearly 20 years of exploration rooted in the plant-oil spot market, has been able to routinely use oil-and-meal related futures contracts to stabilize crushing profits. Also in Hunan, both Tangren Shen and New Hope Hopeful are leading hog breeding enterprises; although their participation scale in hog futures is relatively smaller, they strongly recognize hog futures’ price discovery function and use it as a reference for optimizing production and operations timing. Xingchang Petrochemical, as a “newcomer” to the futures market, only began executing live trading in 2025, but has gained some experience and understanding in hedging implementation.

In response, Liu Xiaoxue, a teacher at Beijing Technology and Business University, pointed out that industry differentiation and enterprise diversification mean their demand for futures tools differs and is tiered. There are state-owned enterprises that need to use prudent hedging to ensure steady operations, and private enterprises that hope to learn more flexible options strategies—very different from the highly condensed background introductions in textbooks.

Teachers also came to understand that how much a company uses futures tools depends on multiple factors, far beyond whether the tool itself is “easy to use.” Chen Zhen, a teacher at Dalian University of Technology, noted that accounting treatment and regulatory requirements, among other things, will have an impact. Wan Zhihong, a teacher at Nankai University, found that enterprises determine hedging size based on their judgment of trends in bulk commodities, rather than seeking complete offset. Therefore, it is necessary to design detailed risk-management strategies and plans by combining comprehensive factors such as industry characteristics, supply-and-demand relationships, upstream and downstream linkages in the industrial chain, and the firm’s own risk exposures.

In addition, the difference between companies’ positioning of futures and the way futures are portrayed in textbook courses also led teachers to reflect. In exchanges, Tang Wenhua, manager of the futures department at Daodaoquan Grain & Oil, said that many companies are able to evaluate hedging effectiveness from the perspective of the spot-futures integration, and do not look only at profit and loss on the futures side. Yang Zhi, board director and CFO of Tangren Shen, also mentioned that the core purpose for enterprises participating in the futures market is still to serve spot operations and industrial development. Tang Wei, general manager of New Hope Hopeful, candidly stated that hog-breeding companies that don’t know how to use futures tools likely will be eliminated during the process of capacity reduction, even if their costs are high.

By comparison, in textbooks and teaching, introductions to futures and options are often presented purely from the angle of financial instrument pricing and trading—more as an investment underlying asset rather than a risk-management tool. Several teachers said that in subsequent courses, they will explain more from the perspectives of risk management and spot-futures integration, so students can gain a more comprehensive and three-dimensional understanding of futures tools.

Directly addressing the talent gap: deep dialogue between industrial demand and university training

Teaching is for nurturing people. With the number of fresh graduates rising year by year, how to help the students universities cultivate stand out in the job market is a concern for every university teacher. From the words of enterprise executives, they also found the key to solving the problem.

During the visits, many enterprises expressed similar talent needs: there are not few people with purely financial backgrounds or purely industrial backgrounds in the market, but composite talents who possess both kinds of capabilities and can handle business in both spot and futures markets at the same time are relatively scarce.

Taking the steel industry as an example, a relevant person in charge at Hunan Steel said that what is most urgently needed now is “spot-futures integration-type” talent—someone who understands both the operating logic and risk hedging of the futures market, and also understands the operating laws of the steel industrial chain and the practical realities of spot trading. They suggested that university training should strengthen industry-education integration by incorporating production processes, trading practices, and market cases into courses. In particular, students should be encouraged to focus deeply on specific contracts, cultivating their ability to dynamically assess the industry and the market.

Chemical industry faces similar problems. Zou Haibo, board director, vice president, and secretary of the board at Xingchang Petrochemical, said that currently the company’s cultivation of hedging talent mainly follows the approach of “first having an industrial foundation, then supplementing financial knowledge.” In the future, they more期待 that universities will add practical content to derivatives teaching—such as industry-chain pricing logic and operational methods for spot-futures integration—so as to directly supply composite talents with multi-disciplinary backgrounds like “chemicals + finance” or “mathematics + finance.”

Although the enterprises’ suggestions are phrased politely, they hit the core issue squarely. Several teachers said that earlier course design for related majors had considered less the needs of industry. “At present, university teaching focuses on theoretical models and pricing principles, and case teaching is highly concise. For topics such as basis-tracking research for specific contracts, the complexity of companies’ internal business processes, and the complexity of industrial chain operations and corporate regulatory environments, they are still covered less in class,” said Wan Zhihong.

Liu Xiaoxue believed that in the future, the cultivation model can be further optimized by building a progressive teaching pathway: “expert lectures + industry-chain thinking training + case explanation or discussion + on-site investigation + writing small papers integrated with industry.” This would use problem awareness to drive students’ familiarity with the industry, so that as they solve specific problems, they gradually build solid industry cognition and the ability to analyze spot-futures.

The research also offered new inspiration for universities to guide employment. Teachers realized that futures are a “small industry with a big market.” Futures talent is not only those who work in futures companies or other financial institutions who can be considered “directly aligned.” In enterprises, they can get exposed to large volumes of hedging practice to improve their business capabilities. In government departments, they can help ensure that regulatory work is carried out correctly and serve more enterprises in hedging that is compliant and smooth. Feng Jianfen, a teacher at University of International Business and Economics, said universities and teachers should broaden their perspective when guiding student employment, encourage students to include more types of employers in their choices, and also prepare the corresponding knowledge and capabilities to achieve a two-way match.

Deepening industry-academia-research integration: let teaching and research take root in industrial soil

When discussing the inspiration of this event for subsequent teaching and research, several teachers said that the visit brought more than a direct impression of hedging operations at a few enterprises—it also provided methodological inspiration for re-understanding the function of futures from the “industry side.”

In communication, Duan Congying, a teacher at Henan University of Finance and Politics, said the event made her feel the importance of case teaching and social practice. “Previously, the futures knowledge students learned in the classroom was mostly static. Besides simulated trading, they need— and also hope—to encounter dynamic, front-line practices and experiences.” She also believed that if universities, financial institutions, and enterprises can cooperate further to create more opportunities like this for students, it would make talent cultivation more targeted and more effective.

For future research topics and classroom teaching, teachers also gained more inspiration. Liu Xiaoxue said that next, she will distinguish different industrial chain segments, systematically examine the application effects and influencing factors of derivatives tools used by listed companies in each industry, and select a group of representative listed companies as long-term tracking subjects. Research outcomes will be transformed into teaching cases that can enter the classroom. Tan Chunzh i, a teacher at Guangxi University, proposed that in future teaching reform, they will further remove barriers between industry and education. They will integrate companies’ real risk-control cases and hands-on hedging processes into the classroom, tailor teaching content to employers’ needs, make instruction closer to real industrial scenarios, and build a three-in-one teaching system combining theory, the trading screen, and the industry.

From a collaborative perspective of “industry-academia-research,” Wu Changhai, a teacher at China University of Political Science and Law, shared his gains. On one hand, “industry” provides fresh sources and real propositions for “academia and research.” Companies’ practices in ensuring margin usage, compliance requirements, and decision-making in extreme market conditions are valuable materials that textbooks cannot provide. On the other hand, “academia and research” provide theoretical support and talent reserves for “industry.” Universities’ research can help companies translate valuable experience patterns into models and theories, and even explore new tools and new modes in a forward-looking way.

“DCE’s ‘Hundred Schools and Ten Thousand Talents’ project has played the role of a hub and engine. By integrating resources and outputting learning, internship, and practice opportunities, it provides support for cultivating composite professionals who understand both law and finance and also understand the realities of industry—worth promoting and sustaining,” said Wu Changhai.

(DCE)

(Editor: Xu Nannan)

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