A 19-year-old Vaal University of Technology student was stabbed to death in a robbery near his residence in Vereeniging, Gauteng police said on Thursday.

"He was walking to his residence with his friend at 11pm on Wednesday, after they studied together at the campus library," Constable Teboho Lephoto said.

The students were walking through Bedworth Park when two men with knives demanded cash and cellphones.

"The robbers took the friend's cellphone and he managed to flee... it appears that the student tried to fight the robbers off and in the process was stabbed in the upper body," Lephoto said.

The robbers fled and the student died at the scene.

"They did not take anything, he still had his cellphone on him as well as cash."

Lephoto said the student was from Limpopo and was in his first year, studying civil engineering.

His parents were informed of the incident on Wednesday night and were driving up from Limpopo to identify the body.

"It's very sad, they sent their child to study and become something, and now his body is going home," he said.

No arrests had been made as yet, and a case of murder was being investigated.