diff --git a/common/djangoapps/util/tests/test_file.py b/common/djangoapps/util/tests/test_file.py
index b4d62b66b1..bca74aacee 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/util/tests/test_file.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/util/tests/test_file.py
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ from datetime import datetime
 from io import StringIO
 
 import ddt
+import six
 from django.core import exceptions
 from django.core.files.uploadedfile import SimpleUploadedFile
 from django.http import HttpRequest
@@ -231,55 +232,53 @@ class TestUniversalNewlineIterator(TestCase):
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_line_feeds(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\nbar\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\nbar\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo\n', 'bar\n']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_carriage_returns(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\rbar\r'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\rbar\r'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo\n', 'bar\n']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_carriage_returns_and_line_feeds(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\r\nbar\r\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\r\nbar\r\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo\n', 'bar\n']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_no_trailing_newline(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\nbar'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\nbar'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo\n', 'bar']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_only_one_line(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo\n'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo\n']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_only_one_line_no_trailing_newline(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'foo'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             ['foo']
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_empty_file(self, buffer_size):
         self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u''), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
+            [thing.decode('utf-8') for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u''), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
             []
         )
 
     @ddt.data(1, 2, 999)
     def test_unicode_data(self, buffer_size):
-        self.assertEqual(
-            [thing for thing in UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'héllø wo®ld'), buffer_size=buffer_size)],
-            [u'héllø wo®ld']
-        )
+        self.assertEqual([thing.decode('utf-8') if six.PY3 else thing for thing in
+                          UniversalNewlineIterator(StringIO(u'héllø wo®ld'), buffer_size=buffer_size)], [u'héllø wo®ld'])