diff --git a/rest_framework/compat.py b/rest_framework/compat.py
index 8d28b49e8..ce3b41c5c 100644
--- a/rest_framework/compat.py
+++ b/rest_framework/compat.py
@@ -93,12 +93,16 @@ except ImportError:
     postgres_fields = None
 
 
-# coreapi is optional (Note that uritemplate is a dependency of coreapi)
+# coreapi is required for CoreAPI schema generation
 try:
     import coreapi
-    import uritemplate
 except ImportError:
     coreapi = None
+
+# uritemplate is required for OpenAPI schema generation
+try:
+    import uritemplate
+except ImportError:
     uritemplate = None