diff --git a/base-notebook/Dockerfile b/base-notebook/Dockerfile
index 4a521af8..36ae43c6 100644
--- a/base-notebook/Dockerfile
+++ b/base-notebook/Dockerfile
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ RUN echo "auth requisite pam_deny.so" >> /etc/pam.d/su && \
 USER ${NB_UID}
 
 # Pin python version here, or set it to "default"
-ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.7
+ARG PYTHON_VERSION=3.8
 
 # Setup work directory for backward-compatibility
 RUN mkdir "/home/${NB_USER}/work" && \
diff --git a/tests/base-notebook/test_python.py b/tests/base-notebook/test_python.py
index afcaacc9..8cd57cfe 100644
--- a/tests/base-notebook/test_python.py
+++ b/tests/base-notebook/test_python.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ import logging
 from tests.conftest import TrackedContainer
 
 LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
-EXPECTED_PYTHON_VERSION = "3.7"
+EXPECTED_PYTHON_VERSION = "3.8"
 
 
 def test_python_version(container: TrackedContainer) -> None: