diff --git a/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/bulk_change_enrollment.py b/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/bulk_change_enrollment.py
index 0c95dd8bca..a1a5c4de5b 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/bulk_change_enrollment.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/bulk_change_enrollment.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
     """
 
     def add_arguments(self, parser):
-        group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group()
+        group = parser.add_mutually_exclusive_group(required=True)
         group.add_argument(
             '-c', '--course',
             help='The course to change enrollments in')
@@ -64,7 +64,6 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
         to_mode = options['to_mode']
         commit = options['commit']
         course_keys = []
-
         if course_id:
             try:
                 course_key = CourseKey.from_string(course_id)
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/manage_user.py b/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/manage_user.py
index 46ee7501ce..4c2a102322 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/manage_user.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/student/management/commands/manage_user.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Django users, set/unset permission bits, and associate groups by name.
 
 
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
-from django.contrib.auth.hashers import is_password_usable
+from django.contrib.auth.hashers import is_password_usable, identify_hasher
 from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
 from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError
 from django.db import transaction
@@ -15,6 +15,20 @@ from openedx.core.djangoapps.user_authn.utils import generate_password
 from student.models import UserProfile
 
 
+def is_valid_django_hash(encoded):
+    """
+    Starting with django 2.1, the function is_password_usable no longer checks whether encode
+    is a valid password created by a django hasher (hasher in  PASSWORD_HASHERS setting)
+
+    Adding this function to create constant behavior as we upgrade django versions
+    """
+    try:
+        identify_hasher(encoded)
+    except ValueError:
+        return False
+    return True
+
+
 class Command(BaseCommand):
     # pylint: disable=missing-docstring
 
@@ -87,7 +101,7 @@ class Command(BaseCommand):
 
         if created:
             if initial_password_hash:
-                if not is_password_usable(initial_password_hash):
+                if not (is_password_usable(initial_password_hash) and is_valid_django_hash(initial_password_hash)):
                     raise CommandError('The password hash provided for user {} is invalid.'.format(username))
                 user.password = initial_password_hash
             else: