diff --git a/lms/templates/api_admin/status.html b/lms/templates/api_admin/status.html
index 0d84b753ce..c75939fb08 100644
--- a/lms/templates/api_admin/status.html
+++ b/lms/templates/api_admin/status.html
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ from openedx.core.djangolib.markup import HTML, Text
         <div class="api-form-container">
           <form id="api-form-fields" method="post" class="api-form">
             <input type="hidden" id="csrf_token" name="csrfmiddlewaretoken" value="${csrf_token}">
-            ${form.as_p() | n}
+            ${form.as_p() | n, decode.utf8}
             <input id="api-access-submit" type="submit" value="${_('Generate API client credentials')}"/>
           </form>
         </div>
diff --git a/lms/templates/dashboard.html b/lms/templates/dashboard.html
index a7123cfe9e..0ea4496170 100644
--- a/lms/templates/dashboard.html
+++ b/lms/templates/dashboard.html
@@ -63,13 +63,13 @@ from openedx.core.djangolib.markup import HTML, Text
 <div class="dashboard-notifications" tabindex="-1">
     %if message:
         <section class="dashboard-banner">
-            ${message | n, unicode}
+            ${message | n, decode.utf8}
         </section>
     %endif
 
     %if enrollment_message:
         <section class="dashboard-banner">
-            ${enrollment_message | n, unicode}
+            ${enrollment_message | n,  decode.utf8}
         </section>
     %endif
 </div>
diff --git a/lms/templates/edxnotes/edxnotes.html b/lms/templates/edxnotes/edxnotes.html
index 688b832691..1f4bb51d6d 100644
--- a/lms/templates/edxnotes/edxnotes.html
+++ b/lms/templates/edxnotes/edxnotes.html
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@ from openedx.core.djangolib.js_utils import dump_js_escaped_json, js_escaped_str
     <%static:require_module module_name="js/edxnotes/views/page_factory" class_name="NotesPageFactory">
         NotesPageFactory({
             disabledTabs: ${disabled_tabs | n, dump_js_escaped_json},
-            notes: ${dump_js_escaped_json(notes, NoteJSONEncoder) | n},
+            notes: ${dump_js_escaped_json(notes, NoteJSONEncoder) | n, decode.utf8},
             notesEndpoint: ${notes_endpoint | n, dump_js_escaped_json},
             pageSize: ${page_size | n, dump_js_escaped_json},
             debugMode: ${debug | n, dump_js_escaped_json}
diff --git a/lms/templates/index.html b/lms/templates/index.html
index bcf7d48d10..fd2e2ec459 100644
--- a/lms/templates/index.html
+++ b/lms/templates/index.html
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ from openedx.core.djangolib.markup import HTML, Text
           <div class="title">
             <div class="heading-group">
               % if homepage_overlay_html:
-                ${homepage_overlay_html|n}
+                ${homepage_overlay_html | n, decode.utf8}
               % else:
                   ## Translators: 'Open edX' is a registered trademark, please keep this untranslated. See http://open.edx.org for more information.
                   <h1>${Text(_(u"Welcome to the Open edX{registered_trademark} platform!")).format(registered_trademark=HTML("<sup style='font-size: 65%'>&reg;</sup>"))}</h1>
diff --git a/themes/edx.org/lms/templates/dashboard.html b/themes/edx.org/lms/templates/dashboard.html
index 19e8624fde..3410491a6b 100644
--- a/themes/edx.org/lms/templates/dashboard.html
+++ b/themes/edx.org/lms/templates/dashboard.html
@@ -65,13 +65,13 @@ from openedx.core.djangolib.markup import HTML, Text
 <div class="dashboard-notifications" tabindex="-1">
     %if message:
         <section class="dashboard-banner">
-            ${message | n, unicode}
+            ${message | n, decode.utf8}
         </section>
     %endif
 
     %if enrollment_message:
         <section class="dashboard-banner">
-            ${enrollment_message | n, unicode}
+            ${enrollment_message | n, decode.utf8}
         </section>
     %endif
 </div>