diff --git a/runtests.py b/runtests.py
index 7a40ad8ae6d70f7954cd776cab250eb682db9797..d414f93aeb199b765271f90ed6e510489c375963 100755
--- a/runtests.py
+++ b/runtests.py
@@ -31,6 +31,14 @@ settings.configure(
         'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
         'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
     ),
+    MIDDLEWARE=(
+        'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
+        'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
+        'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
+        'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
+        'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
+        'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
+    ),
     TEMPLATES=[
         {
             'BACKEND': 'django.template.backends.django.DjangoTemplates',
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e77982496e01cf2182a78614fac0d0f6acf347bc..7f700502cd5758674ad0799c0d14c74e6f858acf 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ setup(
     author_email='devops@uis.cam.ac.uk',
     packages=find_packages(),
     include_package_data=True,
-    install_requires=['django>=1.8'],
+    install_requires=['django>=1.11'],
     classifiers=[
         'Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable',
         'Environment :: Web Environment',