diff --git a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/certificates.py b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/certificates.py
index 69a208c8b9..626524bfe1 100644
--- a/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/certificates.py
+++ b/cms/djangoapps/contentstore/views/certificates.py
@@ -237,6 +237,8 @@ class CertificateManager(object):
         Deserialize from a JSON representation into a Certificate object.
         'value' should be either a Certificate instance, or a valid JSON string
         """
+        if not six.PY2 and isinstance(value, bytes):
+            value = value.decode('utf-8')
 
         # Ensure the schema fieldset meets our expectations
         for key in ("name", "description", "version"):