diff --git a/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tasks.py b/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tasks.py
index 7466e113af..16daf4eb80 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tasks.py
+++ b/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tasks.py
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ def fetch_saml_metadata():
 
             try:
                 parser = etree.XMLParser(remove_comments=True)
-                xml = etree.fromstring(response.text, parser)
+                xml = etree.fromstring(response.content, parser)
             except etree.XMLSyntaxError:
                 raise
             # TODO: Can use OneLogin_Saml2_Utils to validate signed XML if anyone is using that
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ def fetch_saml_metadata():
         except Exception as err:  # pylint: disable=broad-except
             log.exception(err.message)
             num_failed += 1
-        return (num_changed, num_failed, len(url_map))
+    return (num_changed, num_failed, len(url_map))
 
 
 def _parse_metadata_xml(xml, entity_id):
diff --git a/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tests/data/testshib_metadata.xml b/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tests/data/testshib_metadata.xml
index e78b2e1733..cf74a5ad59 100644
--- a/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tests/data/testshib_metadata.xml
+++ b/common/djangoapps/third_party_auth/tests/data/testshib_metadata.xml
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <!-- Cached and simplified copy of https://www.testshib.org/metadata/testshib-providers.xml -->
 <EntitiesDescriptor Name="urn:mace:shibboleth:testshib:two"
     xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:SAML:2.0:metadata" xmlns:ds="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#"