diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/print_setting.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/print_setting.py
index 52898fb878..d973e2ed4c 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/print_setting.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/print_setting.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ Useful when paver or a shell script needs such a value.
 This handles the one specific use case of the "print_settings" command from
 django-extensions that we were actually using.
 """
-from __future__ import print_function
+from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function
 
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/reset_db.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/reset_db.py
index 9541def572..da0e13308a 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/reset_db.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/management/commands/reset_db.py
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ django-extensions that we were actually using.
 
 originally from http://www.djangosnippets.org/snippets/828/ by dnordberg
 """
-from __future__ import print_function
+from __future__ import absolute_import, print_function
+
 import logging
 
 import django
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_print_setting.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_print_setting.py
index 0487f7fe99..ebdaa5ec97 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_print_setting.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_print_setting.py
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-from __future__ import unicode_literals
+from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
 
 import pytest
-from django.core.management import call_command, CommandError
+from django.core.management import CommandError, call_command
 
 
 def test_without_args(capsys):
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_signals.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_signals.py
index 003784aca9..0a613cd4da 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_signals.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_signals.py
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 # pylint: disable=no-member, missing-docstring
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+
 from unittest import TestCase
+
 from celery.task import task
 from django.test.utils import override_settings
-
 from edx_django_utils.cache import RequestCache
 
 
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_messages.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_messages.py
index bcbcc5ea7e..7eef9853b4 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_messages.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_messages.py
@@ -2,8 +2,9 @@
 Unit tests for user messages.
 """
 
-import ddt
+from __future__ import absolute_import
 
+import ddt
 from django.contrib.messages.middleware import MessageMiddleware
 from django.test import RequestFactory, TestCase
 
diff --git a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_utils.py b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_utils.py
index 05fee5b4a2..bdc9897fd8 100644
--- a/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_utils.py
+++ b/openedx/core/djangoapps/util/tests/test_user_utils.py
@@ -1,8 +1,12 @@
 """Tests for util.user_utils module."""
 
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+
 import unittest
 
+import six
 from django.contrib.auth.models import AnonymousUser
+
 from ..user_utils import SystemUser
 
 
@@ -18,7 +22,7 @@ class SystemUserTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertIsNone(self.sysuser.id)
 
     def test_system_user_has_custom_unicode_representation(self):
-        self.assertNotEqual(unicode(self.sysuser), unicode(AnonymousUser()))
+        self.assertNotEqual(six.text_type(self.sysuser), six.text_type(AnonymousUser()))
 
     def test_system_user_is_not_staff(self):
         self.assertFalse(self.sysuser.is_staff)