New York (DM): Tickets to dine with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a fundraising dinner for the university where the royal couple met as students are selling for up to £64,000. Prince William and Kate are due to take a mini tour of America next month, ending with the fundraiser at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. The event is being held to raise money for St Andrews University in Scotland and is being held to mark the 600th anniversary of the historic establishment. American press have already been given etiquette guides for the visit from the Royal couple, who will tour New York City and Washington DC during a three-day visit from December 7. Guests will need to buy a table for 10 at a cost of £64,000 to get two VIP tickets to the event and be in with a chance to meet the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Sunday Times reported.
The Manhattan gala dinner will raise money for St Andrews as well as raise the profile of the Scottish university. The couple met there in 2002 after they enrolled on the same History of Art course.
Other guests at the event are likely to include Olivier Sarkozy, half brother of the former French president, and his fiancee Mary-Kate Olsen. It has been organised by Stanislas de Quercize, chief executive of Cartier.
There are expected to be around 450 guests at the gala dinner where a number of items will be auctioned to raise funds. These include a literary tour of Edinburgh with Ian Rankin and an overnight stay at Highclere Castle, where Downton Abbey is set.  
The Duke and Duchess will attend a private dinner on behalf of the American Friends of the Royal Foundation on the first night of their visit.
Prince William will spend the next day in Washington DC while Kate remains in New York.
During his visit, the Prince will attend an anti-corruption conference at the World Bank, focusing on the transportation of illegal wildlife parts across borders.
The Duchess will visit a school for disadvantaged children.
Prince William will also attend a reception in New York for the Tusk Trust on the same day, before rejoining the Duchess of Cambridge to watch Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Brooklyn Nets.
The following day, both the Duke and Duchess will visit an inner city youth organisation, focused on social support and learning for poorer children.
The visit will be the first overseas trip by the Duchess of Cambridge since she announced she was expecting the couple’s second child, due in April.
Kate, 32, had to cancel her first solo engagement to Malta last month after she suffered severe morning sickness.
Prince George, who turned one in July, will not accompany the Royal couple to America. He went with them on a three-week tour of Australia and New Zealand earlier this year.